HP to fire 9,000 due to 'productivity gains, automation'

Hewlett-Packard will axe 9,000 jobs at the ink and computer giant over the next three years.

The company confirmed its plans today saying it hoped to improve its corporate services business, after it bought EDS in 2008 for $13.9bn.

HP said it would swallow a $1bn charge between now and its 2013 financial year, half of which would be stumped up in the firm's third quarter.

The company expects to make annual net savings of $500m to $700m by the end of its 2013 fiscal year.

HP, which currently has a workforce of around 304,000 worldwide, did not reveal a breakdown of the number of jobs it planned to cut in each country or region.

The technology mammoth said it would invest in "fully automated" commercial data centres.

"Over the past 20 months, we focused on integrating EDS and improving profitability," said HP enterprise services senior veep Tom Iannotti. "Now that the integration is largely complete, we have identified significant opportunities to grow and scale the business. These next-generation services will enable our clients to benefit from the combined technology and services leadership that only HP offers."

HP said that "productivity gains and automation" meant that it could "eliminate" around 9,000 staff positions at the company over the next few years. ®